Yoohoo.. I'm home..

Yes. Home. Very tired. Long trip. Lots of changes and waits. A last trip to Tel Aviv for a few hours with luggage and nothing in particular to do with a few adventures on the way, including being accosted often.. mostly for a ride.. ie money, but also for our souls.. sorta. It's not as sinister as it sounds. But anyway, back home, with the kitty.. she's already as bratty as ever.. and we're settling back in to winter again. Pretty tired at the moment, might go into details at some point.

Fish watching is a thing.

I guess it is. I don't know if anyone calls it that, but people do it. I've been doing a bit of that. I'm here by the sea, with a coral reef, swarming with many colored fish, staying with people who have diving equipment... well at least the kind that someone of my extremely limited ability could possibly use, so how could I not? Most if it has been me getting in the water a bit, sometimes with goggles, and then spending a lot of time on the beach. We've gone to the beach 3 days... 3 different beaches here in Eilat.. and saw plenty of amazing fish right away.. certainly compared to anything I'm used to.. although I never stayed in the water very long, or got very far, and sometimes didn't even bother with the goggles. Today I went in "properly". Just swam out a little bit from the beach, with the help of a pair of too big flippers and found myself in the middle of a beautiful coral reef swimming with a school of many colored fishes. Well.. a lot of various colored fish, big and small, some in groups, some just hanging out with the general fish community. It was pretty awesome really. We got a waterproof camera, which can be used underwater and took a few pics of the fish.. though no idea if you can tell any of them are fish, I did use a lot of the film on self portraits of me underwater.. though I don't know if that worked either. So I've been in Eilat about 5 days now and it's almost time to take off. Done of lot of being at the beach. Some walking in hills... seeing a lot of desert and rocks, birds, dolphins and fish of course. One more event tonight which I call "hanging out in the pub" and tomorrow we're on the bus.. still have a little bit of time in Tel Aviv after the long bus ride.. but we're mostly finished here. I think I'm a bit sunburnt.

Havin a whale...

of a time. here in Eilat.

And I'm there

So.. all the vexing stuff is done with, the waiting, the traveling, the carrying, the waiting, the being interrogated, the waiting, the schlepping, the turbulence, the getting off on the wrong tram stop and having to go back, the numerous versions of what seems like the exact same customs need, the waiting, the traveling at midnight so you get exactly no sleep for one day, the being in a car 6 hours, the changing from one mode of transport, then another, with a schlep and a wait in between ok you get the picture? It wasn't so bad. By the time we got to Jerusalem, well the house we got to rest in for a bit, it was ok. A lot up to that point, but.. as one is done, then you're slightly closer to your goal. Anyway did that and then a long car ride and now we're here. Stayed up even though little sleep was gotten on the plane, barely two hours at best at our rest stop and none in the car, and socialized and ate.. now it's just rest time, and ready for a fresh start tomorrow. We're by the sea, and it's warm here. This is good enough already.

Off on a midnight train..

Yep, I totally am. I am "literally" going on a midnight train tonight, to sunny Eilat. I mean, it's actually due to take off at 5 minutes to midnight and it's not a train it's a plane and it's not going to Eilat it's going to Tel Aviv from where we, at 3am or so will make our way to Jerusalem to refresh ourselves and rest and wait for the ride to Eilat. Which is sunny, and by the sea. Oh it's cold here, did I mention, and snowing, hasn't stopped actually, it's kind of weird in a way, and it's getting colder and should be like.. super cold tomorrow. *smirks* It's like.. mid to high 20s in Eilat. And it's by the sea. *tries not to look smug and fails* So.. for now we've got all the "traveling" part of the traveling to do.. and well.. it's a whole lot of schleppng and waiting and passport control and being in airports and cities in the middle of the night so I'm looking forward to that part being done and being in Eilat, which is warm, oh and it's by the sea, did I mention? Yeah, I'd kind of like it to be that bit. By this time tomorrow, it will be that bit, so I hope for it to be then. Catch ya later.

And when I say 18..

I mean 36. Somehow I got a day and a half mixed up with half a day and half a half a day.. *looks a bit confuzzled* anyway then it was 36 hours.. now it's 36, and some. Still.. not long to go. I should like, pack and stuff.

18 hours to the sun

It's rather dull and overcast out there, got that white sky that you get when it's snowing/been snowing and there's a light cover of snow on grass and roofs, you know the kind of half melted away kind, not the fluffy thick one that stays in the trees and makes everything beautiful, but just makes everything look cold. And slippery. The temperature is -2, but it feels like -7, apparently. Why am I telling you this? Well, this plans to go on for some time, at least for another few weeks, this cold and general slippery conditions but some time tomorrow, well the day after tomorrow technically just after midnight, I'll be in the sun. Well it won't be sunny because it'll be 3 in the morning but it'll be warm, nevertheless. And then when the sun comes up it will be sunny. It's cos of that trip, the one I've been talking about.. flight leaves in just 18 hours, well a bit under that now. So 2 days from now I'll be somewhere warm, not quite lying on the beach yet because we'll still have to make our way to Eilat, but, we won't be sitting by a window with light rain/snow falling outside.

That 19 minutes taught me nothing.

My recently, short lived experience as a peddler doesn't seem to have taught me a whole lot, or influenced me much in anyway.. or perhaps it did, I dunno. Oh yeah I mean sales person, in general. I had someone at the flat earlier talking to me about utilities and money back and all this sort of jazz... I let him talk too long, and read forms, and gave him my number and have been ignoring the phone all evening and just telling them.. no.. I'll call when I've figured it out, cos, I don't understand this stuff. It's possible that, hearing the whole push, I recognized some aspects of it, and thought.. well, he's doing a job, he might actually have a decent deal, I should listen. A bit of advice naive folk out there who've never been on the other side of the sales game like some of us hardened folk.. don't. Just say not interested and.. well, if they have something good you can always look it up on the internet and do it in your own time, if it is that good, and it's something you actually want.. I mean, that person won't get their commission for it but that's their own fault for choosing such a career, that's annoying and invasive and well, often predatory, and not quitting after 3 days and/or as soon as training is finished imho. And I didn't understand what he was telling me, yeah, it was all in Czech, which I understand but not exactly flawlessly.. or anywhere near that, but, it's probably more to do with my serious lack of grownupness... really, people in their 20s.. their 20s!!! have mortgages and know how to pay bills and stuff.. and it's just a thing, it's just a thing people do when they live and work and stuff but, I can't seem to get the hang of it. Still a few more months of my 30s to figure it out I suppose. There is probably someone somewhere in the world that I'm doing better than in that way but, they probably live in a basement. Or under a rock. I'd like to meet them actually, only for a few minutes, and possibly friend them on Facebook. So that's my adventure of the day.. I didn't get around to getting a trade licence which is a thing I need now, or even start the ball rolling in a significant way because the office was closed. The office wasn't closed yesterday, but I didn't go there, last week I already knew I needed this but.. well.. you see how it is? It's been snowing all day, not terribly cold but, obvs not warm, so it's nice to know that in 3 days I'll be relaxing very close to the Red Sea in a place that's currently 19° at the moment.. which is evening. I may have mentioned it, quite looking forward to it. Will send pics.

*counts the days, months*

I'm over this winter thing. I wasn't all that interested in the first place, to be honest. I mean, I like snow and stuff.. but, there really isn't enough of it for the whole time that winter is around, and if there was, I'd probably be as over that as well, like people who grew up with it, and grumble as the snowflakes start falling, turning the landscape all beautiful and stuff.. when kids and dogs come out to frolic and.. ok I like snow. We had another shower last night, well, quite a heavy fall.. it was particularly wonderlandy this morning, complete with snow on the end o the branches of the trees where the leaves are supposed to be. It was very pretty.. of course, this morning was the morning the fixit dudes came in to fix the windows in the bathroom, and they came late, and took their time starting, and then the 2 or 3 hours estimate they gave us for the time it would take turned out to be wildly inaccurate and they were here all day and thus, I have not been out once. Except to go downstairs to buy a few things.. and well, it seems to have melted pretty quickly giving us that "recently snowed and there's some lying about but it's not all that pretty anymore" look. It seems to be like that most of the time, except for when it's just grey, and the days are still to short and to be quite honest it's too cold. And in just under a week we're going to Eilat, a particularly lovely warm town by the sea in Israel so.. nice break from this all. After that we're back, and it'll be March, and it will probably be cold to very cold for some weeks yet and might even snow more and it's not even officially spring until the late part of the month according to these northern hemisphereans which I've never really gotten used to but apparently it's like that.. but, nevertheless it is going to be March.. and March is.. spring, sorta. So it won't be so bad after that. Just 5 days.. and a couple of hours we're off on a midnight flight. Quite looking forward to that.

flutters about the head..

It's the day o little pink hearts fluttering about everywhere, cartoony music playing as a fat little fellow wanders along oblivious to all except for that one person that makes them all dreamy eyed and stuff.. their valentine. Yeah yeah, it's that day. It's been pretty uneventful but will be doing the "going out for dinner" thing, which will be nice, cos it's been a while since I did that.. and there should be some drinks involved, I'm into that. There are things fluttering about my head.. kind of, annoying things and the things that I use to push those annoying things out.. the usual boring red tape and money related crap.. my brief moment of excitement and joy upon quitting the other job that I feel now sometimes I should not have been so hasty to, is over. I kinda have another job if I want it and have well.. other stuff I need for it, but, there's other stuff I need for it.. I got the experience the talent, the desire to do it but.. one other thing, which involves more money, hassle.. er.. the possibility that it won't work at all so.. grrr but otherwise.. other than that and the other thing that's bothering me, things are cool.. had some nice snowfall.. going to a lovely Valentines dinner, taking off to sunny Israel in less than a week.. or just about a week. So yeah.. the things fluttering about don't have to be negative ones, they're just there.

And it's winter again.

I woke up, and it was all grey and stuff.. about an hour, there was a light smattering of snow on everything.. about a half hour after that, not so light smattering. And it just kept on going. It's quite nice really.. and for once, I didn't come across a single grumbler today, I either met with people of a similar background in that they come from places, even if it's been a while since they've been there, where it doesn't snow, or, well, didn't really talk to anyone, or speaking to tourists that are visiting, or just talking to myself, but I didn't have to listen to the usual grumblers grumbling that it's no longer that dreary, grey, leafless pointless season that is winter when it doesn't snow or where it doesn't snow, to the more, wonderland-ish type of winter, that's all white and beautiful. So that was nice. I believe it's still snowing too. I don't know how long it will, but it's possible I will start grumbling at some point, I won't just yet though.

I Will Do Stuff, I Will Do Stuff.

I'm gonna do stuff. It's official. This time I'm really going to do it, not just get and keep a job, and do it properly, not just get stuff organized and stuff.. and schmooze and get all up in the face of the local theatre people and all that, and casting agencies, but also that other stuff.. you know my own stuff that I've been talking about doing actually I have been doing.. just not finishing, really. I mean.. yeah, I said this for the 4th time a year ago but, this time, I will. Watch this space! I mean, don't hold your breath, there's a lot of editing and in fact, filming in the first place to do, but.. I intend totally to get it done this time, I hope. I mean.. stuff, the stuff that's happened, it's a sign I think. Not that anything has really happened but, I'll take it as meaning it's time for me to finally do this, and that it will happen, and that it will be good. No reason to think that except for that I want to but I really really want to, so it'll do.

I'm Back.

I mean, I never went anywhere, and the small deter from my regular life was pretty short, and not really much of a detour from anything, and really this life I'm talking about isn't much to detour from, but I am, nevertheless, in the colloquial sense, back. At least back to being able to hope and plan for all those things I want to do, and keep looking for employment as I have for months now but something that won't completely get in the way of those things that I want to do that I never really get around to. That's what I mean by back. I'm there. It's not looking so bad now, there is something on the horizon that looks quite hopeful, and something else on the same horizon that is a possibility which would be pretty good, and there's all those other things that could happen, the little things that come by every now and again, the possibility to get out there more than I ever have and do more of it, without something like, oh, having every evening of every week booked for making phone calls to strangers, for instance. I mean.. no hatching eggs yet, well I am mentally totally watching those chickens grow and getting them mortgages, it's hard not to, but I'll try to keep it in my head for now, and work on actually hatching one of them a bit.. and see where it goes from there. I am glad to be where I am now. Where I was may have lasted by a short while, but the slightly longer while previous to that was a lead up to it, and in that time I felt I couldn't really.. to put it short and equally vaguely as the way I usually explain things.. get on with my life. Now I will, and I am.

A bunch o things..

the yard behind  "my old work".. you know the place I went to for 3 + a little bit days this week for mostly training and a few poorly executed phone calls.. anyway, today things are pretty much back to normal for me. Nothing new yet..

And that wraps it up for that.

Another chapter of my life has closed. It was an exciting, arduous, eye opening er.. couple of days but.. well perhaps it wasn't really that, it was just.. ok in a nutshell I"m a quitting quitter who quits, quittingly. yeah I quit. After a measly 3 days, well 4 and a bit, 2 of doing the actual work, well, after less than an hour altogether doing what the actual work is.

Many reasons, beginning with but not limited to.. don't fucking like it. Was not a good starter at this and as it was something I never really intended to do for long, didn't feel it was necessary to invest the time to be a not anymore starter who';s actually kind of ok at this.. and go through all the anguish just to quiet when something better came along.. waste everyone's time etc etc. There are other things I want to do, things that seem to be on the horizon and might be happening soon though I really shouldn't count my chickens well I sort of already have in a way but it is true that this was, well would have if it had gone on for longer, gotten in the way of things I want/need to do, and I know that's grammatically a mess but it did, would have, well it did, there were a few little things I didn't go for because I thought I'd be working on the day.. actually yeah.. 3 days and there are like, 3 things.. 3 things! Small things but 3 things I turned down, not that I'd have gotten them probably and it's not such a big deal but that's a lot of things for that short amount of time. So there's that, and I am starting other things, hopefully very soon though I know I shouldn't count on it because it's gone so swimmingly well for me in the past, yes that was sarcastic.

But mainly, and it really doesn't matter that the last paragraph makes no sense at all because the main reason was.. I didn't like it. Not doing it. Didn't do it really, only very little.

So that's it. On to the next chapter.

Off I go again.

Today's my first full proper day. Well I've been there 3 full days already, but it's been training. Today I start at the proper time, and go until 10pm and I'll be on the phone all day, well most of the day, still a little bit o training along with it but it's like 9 fucking hours on the phone! for the most part. Yesterday I did it for almost 20 minutes and that was about as much as I could stand, well, more really.

I don't want to do this. I have to do this. I don't want to do this, but I have to. I DON'T WANT TO TO DO THIS! I should do this, I really should.. but I don't want to.

*slams down phone*

I really really really want to slam the universal giant phone down on all the public in the entire world, forever. Seriously. That would make me happy. That and a beer, but mostly the slamming. And a beer. A beer would  be welcome right now but without the slamming o the phone, it'd be just a beer.

Oh I work with phones did I mention, this job I just started. Yeah. Well, I think it's a phone, it calls people up, you talk to people on it but it's like, got this boxy bit that's attached to a table and a separate handle thing you pick up, you know like those things people use in Mad Men. I think I remember something like that from my childhood and no I'm not quite that old but.. old enough for vague memories.. ok not so vague but you know, been a while since I've been anywhere near one of those things.

So after a few days of inadequate training, I got on the phone, just for a while in the last hour. Most of it was taken up with technical difficulties, so I really wasn't on for more than 20 minutes.. but, it was enough to know that.. well that it was shitty, at least the first few times. Was not ready, did not feel comfortable, did not like!

So tomorrow I gotta do it all day, and then the day after that, and the day after that is Saturday so I'll probably be doing the beer thing and then on Monday again.. and I know it'll get less awkward and less awful but still.. jeez!

*metaphorically slams phone on all the weird old boxy landline things left in the world*

na.. didn't work. Gonna need that beer.

Started Work Today.

Stop laughing. It's true. Started a new job. Ok so I didn't really work so much as spent some time in training, which today mostly consisted of the basics, but it is a job and I will be doing something not dissimilar to real work that might even make some money for someone at some point. Hey, it happens to the everyone at some point, even the most unlikely.

Going to be doing some weird hours, once I finish training and start working, but for now it's reg office, well slightly later than reg but not getting home at midnight type hours.

Don't know what else to say.. oh yeah and I'm so, like, tired and stuff.. after a hard days work and all that. Yeah.

so.. they showed up.

yeah.. "they". She brought a friend. Called later while we were out.. but it turned out pretty simple, we let them in, they put their stuff down, asked a few questions, went out for a bit, and stayed the night... already gone now.

So that was quick.

Got some more people coming in just over a week. Might be fun.

Starting work tomorrow, not sure how that will but but it'll be interesting. I suppose if I'm saying it'll be interesting I have an idea how it'll be, but i mean interesting as in.. well, not much idea how it'l be yet.

Going away to sunny Israel at the end of the month, and that time also brings something else that I have to worry about, and so I am. I guess there's stuff.

*hears ringing in ear*

I might at some point get a phone call from someone who expects to come here, who may or may not know enough English to form a conversation. I'm doing this couchsurfing thing, you know, the couchsurfing thing! Surely you're cool and you know what I'm talking about, if you're not cool, then google.

I should trademark that.. it's a catchphrase!

Anyway.. I agreed to let someone stay here, more than a month ago, and she's supposed to come today, but, haven't heard from here in a few week,s and don't know any more details than the day she arrives so.. I sent a message a few days ago saying PLEASE GIVE DETAILS FFS! Well, not the last bit, but.. haven't gotten the deets so.. no idea if it's still on and if I'll get a phone call at some point.

So please note. If you're going to be staying with people somewhere, at some point, whether you know these people, whether you know people who know the people, or if someone mentioned someone needs a place to stay, or, if it's someone you've got no connection with except for a website like couchsurfing, then keep in contact with them up to the point you are staying, give details of when and where you are arriving and make more detailed plans, do not just show up in their city on the day and call them, you might not mind waiting around all day until they're available to come and meet you or to let you in, but still, some people don't like not knowing when shit is happening.. kay? And if you change y our mind or something happens, then, (within reason, of course) then let them know, as soon as you can.

And if you decide to host people, whether they're people you know.. etc etc, or people you meet through a website such as couchsurfing.. don't give the people your address and phone number until it's almost the time they arrive, and give them those details when they contact you to give you the time they're arriving, etc and you make particular arrangements for it. Unless you don't mind being called up on the day whenever they decide to, in which case.. doesn't matter.

Anyway, happy Groundhog Day, hope the squirrel sees the pumpkin or whatever where you live and it means the crops will be successful.. or whatever.

The sweet fragrance in the air..

wafts by me as the sun shines down, glistening on the dewdrops..

well not really, it's dark now, and it was not really sunny today, and really didn't even go out or anything, but it is Feb so... guess that means something.

*wonders what it's all gonna mean*

It's also Friday, which might give me more specific ideas.